Blind source separation methods such as independent component analysis (ICA) and second order blind identification (SOBI) have shown considerable potential in the area of ambient vibration system identification. The objective of these methods is to separate the modal responses, or sources, from the measured output responses, without the knowledge of excitation. Several frequency domain and time domain methods have been proposed and successfully implemented in the literature. Whereas frequency-domain methods pose several challenges typical of dealing with signals in the frequency-domain, popular time-domain methods such as NExT/ERA and SSI pose limitations in dealing with noise, low sensor density, modes having low energy content, or in dealing with systems having closely-spaced modes, such as those found in structures with passive energy dissipation devices, for example, tuned mass dampers.Motivated by these challenges, the current research focuses on developing methods to address the problem of separability of sources with low energy content, closely-spaced modes, and under-determined blind identification, that is, when the number of response measurements is less than the number of sources. These methods, requiring the time and frequency diversities of the measured outputs, are referred to as hybrid time and time-frequency source separation methods. The hybrid methods are classified into two categories. In the first one, the basic principles of modified SOBI are extended using the stationary wavelet transform (SWT) in order to improve the separability of sources, thereby improving the quality of identification. In the second category, empirical mode decomposition is employed to extract the intrinsic mode functions from measurements, followed by an estimation of the mode shape matrix using iterative and/or non iterative procedures within the framework of modified-SOBI. Both experimental and large-scale structural simulation results are included to demonstrate the applicability of these hybrid approaches to structural system identification problems.

Diagnosis of faults associated with hydraulic actuators is essential to avoid accidents or loss of system functionality. This thesis focuses on internal leakage fault diagnosis in valve controlled hydraulic actuation systems (VCA) as well as electrohydrostatic actuation systems (EHA). For the VCA, the hydraulic actuator is driven in a closed loop mode to track a pseudorandom input signal whereas for the EHA, an actuator is driven in an open loop mode to track a sinusoidal input. Motivated by developing a method that does not rely on the model of the system or type of fault, signal processing techniques based on the ratio of metric lengths of pressure signals, autocorrelation of pressure signal, cross correlation between chamber pressure signals, and cross correlation between control signal and piston displacement is employed for internal leakage diagnosis. For the VCA, autocorrelation of pressure signals performed well at lower lags (less than 4) and at a window size of 200 data points; both cross correlation between pressure signals and cross correlation between control signal and piston displacement performed well at higher lags (higher than 8) and at a window size of 100 data points; ratio of metric lengths of pressure signals was found to be more effective at higher lag ratios (more than 16:3). All methods were sensitive to the lowest simulated leakage of 0.047 L/min, though with different level of success; ratio of metric lengths produced 84% sensitivity, autocorrelation 19% sensitivity, cross correlation between pressure signals 25% sensitivity and cross correlation between piston displacement and control signal 20% sensitivity. For the EHA, all methods were capable of identifying small leakage of 0.98 L/min. The ratio of metric lengths produced 6.7% sensitivity, autocorrelation 2.59% sensitivity, cross correlation between pressure signals 9.4% sensitivity and cross correlation between piston displacement and control signal 31.9% sensitivity. The low leakage detection achieved without requiring a model of the actuator or leakage type make these methods very attractive for industrial implementation

Theoretical and experimental studies of real-time interrogation of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors based on chirped pulse compression with increased interrogation resolution and signal-to-noise ratio are presented. Two interrogation systems are proposed in this thesis. In the first interrogation system, a linearly chirped FBG (LCFBG) is employed as the sensing element. By incorporating the LCFBG in an optical interferometer as the sensor encoding system, employing wavelength-to-time mapping and chirped pulse compression technique, the correlation of output microwave waveform with a chirped reference waveform would provide an interrogation result with high speed and high resolution. The proposed system can provide an interrogation resolution as high as 0.25 μ at a speed of 48.6 MHz. The second interrogation system is designed to achieve simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature. In this system, a high-birefringence LCFBG (Hi-Bi LCFBG) is employed as a sensing element.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The objective of the thesis is the development of a phase noise measuring system that makes use of crosscorrelation and averaging to measure below the system hardware noise floor. Various phase noise measurement techniques are considered after which the phase demodulation method is chosen to be implemented. The full development cycle of the hardware is discussed, as well as the post processing that is performed on the measured phase noise. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie tesis is die ontwikkeling van ’n faseruis meetstelsel wat gebruik maak van kruiskorrelasie en vergemiddeling om onder die ruisvloer van die meetstelsel se hardeware te meet. Verskeie faseruis meettegnieke word ondersoek en die fase demodulasie metode word gekies om geïmplementeer te word. Die volle ontwikkelingsiklus van die hardeware word bespreek, sowel as die naverwerking wat toegepas is op die gemete faseruis.

Este trabalho estima a velocidade de fluxo da geleira Grey, localizada no Campo de Gelo Patagônico Sul, nos meses de outubro de 2011 e janeiro a abril de 2012. Os valores de velocidade foram obtidos por um algoritmo, baseado no cálculo de correlação cruzada, entre pares de imagens SAR COSMO-SkyMed e, posteriormente interpolados, para a geração de uma superfície contínua, que ilustre os valores de direção e intensidade de fluxo para toda a geleira. Os resultados foram comparados com dados meteorológicos, disponibilizados pelo Serviço Meteorológico Argentino, para interpretar o padrão sazonal na velocidade de deslocamento. Os meses de Outubro e abril registraram valores médios de velocidade de fluxo de 1,2 ± 0,6 md-1 e 1,1 ± 0,7 md-1, respectivamente. Durante o período de verão, os meses de janeiro, fevereiro e março apresentaram valores de velocidade de fluxo de 1,5 ± 0,6 md-1; 1,3 ± 0,7 md-1 e 1,4 ± 0,5 md-1 variando, diretamente, com a temperatura média mensal. Os valores mensais de fluxo da geleira Grey apresentaram uma correlação linear de 0,96 com a temperatura do ar, medida por uma estação meteorológica automática, localizada a cerca de 80 km da geleira. Os resultados indicam que os valores mensais do fluxo da geleira Grey possuem uma relação positiva com a variação sazonal da temperatura. / This study aims to estimate the flow velocities of Grey Glacier, located in Southern Patagonian Ice Field, between October 2011 and May 2012. The velocity vectors of Grey Glacier were obtained by means of an algorithm based on cross-correlation between pairs of COSMO-SkyMed images and subsequently interpolated, for generate a continuous surface that illustrates the values of intensity and direction of glacier flow. The results were compared with meteorological data, provided by the Meteorological Service of Argentina, to interpret the seasonal pattern in velocity. October-April registered values of flow velocity of 1,2 ± 0,6 md-1 and 1,1 ± 0,7 md-1; respectively. During the summer, the months of January, February and March had values of flow velocity of 1,5 ± 0,6 md-1; 1,3 ± 0,7 md-1 and 1,4 ± 0,5 md-1 varying directly with the monthly average temperature. The monthly values flow of Glacier Grey presented a linear correlation of 0.96 with the air temperature measured by an automatic weather station, located about 80 km from the glacier. The results indicate that the monthly values of the Grey glacier flow are positively related to seasonal variation in temperature.

abstract: The reduced availability of 3He is a motivation for developing alternative neutron detectors. 6Li-enriched CLYC (Cs2LiYCl6), a scintillator, is a promising candidate to replace 3He. The neutron and gamma ray signals from CLYC have different shapes due to the slower decay of neutron pulses. Some of the well-known pulse shape discrimination techniques are charge comparison method, pulse gradient method and frequency gradient method. In the work presented here, we have applied a normalized cross correlation (NCC) approach to real neutron and gamma ray pulses produced by exposing CLYC scintillators to a mixed radiation environment generated by 137Cs, 22Na, 57Co and 252Cf/AmBe at different event rates. The cross correlation analysis produces distinctive results for measured neutron pulses and gamma ray pulses when they are cross correlated with reference neutron and/or gamma templates. NCC produces good separation between neutron and gamma rays at low (< 100 kHz) to mid event rate (< 200 kHz). However, the separation disappears at high event rate (> 200 kHz) because of pileup, noise and baseline shift. This is also confirmed by observing the pulse shape discrimination (PSD) plots and figure of merit (FOM) of NCC. FOM is close to 3, which is good, for low event rate but rolls off significantly along with the increase in the event rate and reaches 1 at high event rate. Future efforts are required to reduce the noise by using better hardware system, remove pileup and detect the NCC shapes of neutron and gamma rays using advanced techniques. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2015

Este trabalho estima a velocidade de fluxo da geleira Grey, localizada no Campo de Gelo Patagônico Sul, nos meses de outubro de 2011 e janeiro a abril de 2012. Os valores de velocidade foram obtidos por um algoritmo, baseado no cálculo de correlação cruzada, entre pares de imagens SAR COSMO-SkyMed e, posteriormente interpolados, para a geração de uma superfície contínua, que ilustre os valores de direção e intensidade de fluxo para toda a geleira. Os resultados foram comparados com dados meteorológicos, disponibilizados pelo Serviço Meteorológico Argentino, para interpretar o padrão sazonal na velocidade de deslocamento. Os meses de Outubro e abril registraram valores médios de velocidade de fluxo de 1,2 ± 0,6 md-1 e 1,1 ± 0,7 md-1, respectivamente. Durante o período de verão, os meses de janeiro, fevereiro e março apresentaram valores de velocidade de fluxo de 1,5 ± 0,6 md-1; 1,3 ± 0,7 md-1 e 1,4 ± 0,5 md-1 variando, diretamente, com a temperatura média mensal. Os valores mensais de fluxo da geleira Grey apresentaram uma correlação linear de 0,96 com a temperatura do ar, medida por uma estação meteorológica automática, localizada a cerca de 80 km da geleira. Os resultados indicam que os valores mensais do fluxo da geleira Grey possuem uma relação positiva com a variação sazonal da temperatura. / This study aims to estimate the flow velocities of Grey Glacier, located in Southern Patagonian Ice Field, between October 2011 and May 2012. The velocity vectors of Grey Glacier were obtained by means of an algorithm based on cross-correlation between pairs of COSMO-SkyMed images and subsequently interpolated, for generate a continuous surface that illustrates the values of intensity and direction of glacier flow. The results were compared with meteorological data, provided by the Meteorological Service of Argentina, to interpret the seasonal pattern in velocity. October-April registered values of flow velocity of 1,2 ± 0,6 md-1 and 1,1 ± 0,7 md-1; respectively. During the summer, the months of January, February and March had values of flow velocity of 1,5 ± 0,6 md-1; 1,3 ± 0,7 md-1 and 1,4 ± 0,5 md-1 varying directly with the monthly average temperature. The monthly values flow of Glacier Grey presented a linear correlation of 0.96 with the air temperature measured by an automatic weather station, located about 80 km from the glacier. The results indicate that the monthly values of the Grey glacier flow are positively related to seasonal variation in temperature.

Este trabalho estima a velocidade de fluxo da geleira Grey, localizada no Campo de Gelo Patagônico Sul, nos meses de outubro de 2011 e janeiro a abril de 2012. Os valores de velocidade foram obtidos por um algoritmo, baseado no cálculo de correlação cruzada, entre pares de imagens SAR COSMO-SkyMed e, posteriormente interpolados, para a geração de uma superfície contínua, que ilustre os valores de direção e intensidade de fluxo para toda a geleira. Os resultados foram comparados com dados meteorológicos, disponibilizados pelo Serviço Meteorológico Argentino, para interpretar o padrão sazonal na velocidade de deslocamento. Os meses de Outubro e abril registraram valores médios de velocidade de fluxo de 1,2 ± 0,6 md-1 e 1,1 ± 0,7 md-1, respectivamente. Durante o período de verão, os meses de janeiro, fevereiro e março apresentaram valores de velocidade de fluxo de 1,5 ± 0,6 md-1; 1,3 ± 0,7 md-1 e 1,4 ± 0,5 md-1 variando, diretamente, com a temperatura média mensal. Os valores mensais de fluxo da geleira Grey apresentaram uma correlação linear de 0,96 com a temperatura do ar, medida por uma estação meteorológica automática, localizada a cerca de 80 km da geleira. Os resultados indicam que os valores mensais do fluxo da geleira Grey possuem uma relação positiva com a variação sazonal da temperatura. / This study aims to estimate the flow velocities of Grey Glacier, located in Southern Patagonian Ice Field, between October 2011 and May 2012. The velocity vectors of Grey Glacier were obtained by means of an algorithm based on cross-correlation between pairs of COSMO-SkyMed images and subsequently interpolated, for generate a continuous surface that illustrates the values of intensity and direction of glacier flow. The results were compared with meteorological data, provided by the Meteorological Service of Argentina, to interpret the seasonal pattern in velocity. October-April registered values of flow velocity of 1,2 ± 0,6 md-1 and 1,1 ± 0,7 md-1; respectively. During the summer, the months of January, February and March had values of flow velocity of 1,5 ± 0,6 md-1; 1,3 ± 0,7 md-1 and 1,4 ± 0,5 md-1 varying directly with the monthly average temperature. The monthly values flow of Glacier Grey presented a linear correlation of 0.96 with the air temperature measured by an automatic weather station, located about 80 km from the glacier. The results indicate that the monthly values of the Grey glacier flow are positively related to seasonal variation in temperature.

For a robot to succeed at speech recognition, it is advantageous to have a strong and clear signal tointerpret. To facilitate this the robot can steer and aim for the sound source to get a clearer signal, todo this a sound source localization system is required. If the robot turns towards the speaker thisalso gives a more natural feeling when a human interacts with the robot. To determine where thesound source is positioned, an angle relative to the microphone pair is calculated using theinteraural time difference (ITD), which is the difference in time of arrival of the sound between thepair of microphones. To achieve good result the microphone signals needs to be preprocessed andthere are also different algorithms for calculating the time difference which are investigated in thisthesis. The results presented in this work are from tests, with an emphasis on focusing at real-timesystems, involving noisy environment and response time. The results show the complexity of thebalance between computational time and precision. / För att en robot ska lyckas med taleigenkänning, är det fördelaktigt att ha en stark och tydlig signalatt tolka. För att underlätta detta kan roboten styra och rikta in sig mot ljudkällan för att få entydligare signal och för att detta skall vara möjligt krävs ett system för lokalisering av ljudkällan.Om roboten vänder sig mot talaren ger detta även en mer naturlig känsla när en människainteragerar med roboten. För att avgöra var ljudkällan är placerad, beräknas en vinkel i förhållandetill mikrofonparet med hjälp av interaurala tidsskillnaden (ITD), vilket är skillnaden i ankomsttid avljudet mellan mikrofonparet. För att uppnå bra resultat måste mikrofonsignalerna förbehandlas ochdet finns också olika algoritmer för att beräkna tidsskillnaden som undersöks i detta examensarbete.Det resultat som presenteras i detta arbete kommer från tester, med tonvikt på att fokusera pårealtidssystem, som inbegriper bullrig miljö och svarstid. Resultaten visar komplexiteten i balansenmellan beräknings tid och precision.

The accurate measurement of multiphase flows of oil/water/gas is a critical element of oil exploration and production. Thus, over the last three decades; the development and deployment of in-line multiphase flow metering systems has been a major focus worldwide. Accurate measurement of multiphase flow in the oil and gas industry is difficult because there is a wide range of flow regimes and multiphase meters do not generally perform well under the intermittent slug flow conditions which commonly occur in oil production. This thesis investigates the use of Doppler and cross-correlation ultrasonic measurements made in different high gas void fraction flow, partially separated liquid and gas flows, and homogeneous flow and raw slug flow, to assess the accuracy of measurement in these regimes. This approach has been tested on water/air flows in a 50mm diameter pipe facility. The system employs a partial gas/liquid separation and homogenisation using a T-Y junction configuration. A combination of ultrasonic measurement techniques was used to measure flow velocities and conductivity rings to measure the gas fraction. In the partially separated regime, ultrasonic cross-correlation and conductivity rings are used to measure the liquid flow-rate. In the homogeneous flow, a clamp-on ultrasonic Doppler meter is used to measure the homogeneous velocity and combined with conductivity ring measurements to provide measurement of the liquid and gas flow-rates. The slug flow regime measurements employ the raw Doppler shift data from the ultrasonic Doppler flowmeter, together with the slug flow closure equation and combined with gas fraction obtained by conductivity rings, to determine the liquid and gas flow-rates. Measurements were made with liquid velocities from 1.0m/s to 2.0m/s with gas void fractions up to 60%. Using these techniques the accuracies of the liquid flow-rate measurement in the partially separated, homogeneous and slug regimes were 10%, 10% and 15% respectively. The accuracy of the gas flow-rate in both the homogeneous and raw slug regimes was 10%. The method offers the possibility of further improvement in the accuracy by combining measurement from different regimes.